WASHINGTON, DC— U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today testified in the Senate on the potential of natural gas to meet our energy needs and increase economic development as well as the need to protect drinking water in Pennsylvania. In testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, Senator Casey highlighted his legislation to increase disclosure and safeguards of chemicals that could enter Pennsylvania’s drinking water supply, improve safety for workers and emergency response procedures at drilling sites and promote job training to help give Pennsylvania workers the skills needed to get jobs in the natural gas industry so that workers are not shipped in from out-of-state.
“The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is experiencing a natural gas boom,” said Senator Casey. “An average of 120 wells per month were drilled in the Marcellus Shale in 2010, versus 17 a month in the preceding four years. American natural gas reserves provide us with a significant energy resource on a global scale. But we must unequivocally ensure that hydraulic fracturing is a safe, clean and stable energy extraction method.”
In response to those who argue the false choice between economic development and safeguards for public health, Senator Casey said: “There is no reason that we should be forced to choose among adequate environmental protection, energy security and economic gain.” He continued: “I support responsible gas exploration, yet I strongly feel that we must protect against repercussions that not only harm the environment and put people at risk, but also hurt business and affect the economy. Damaging incidents can spark strong backlashes and end up stalling economic development. We are fortunate to have an abundance of natural gas, but it must be developed in a manner that fully protects human health and the environment, while creating economic benefits.”
On the need to protect drinking water and ground water in Pennsylvania, Senator Casey said: “For Pennsylvania and other States sitting on top of the Marcellus Shale formation, the rapid growth of gas drilling may increase the danger of oil, gas or brine-laden water pathways up to groundwater supplies or to the surface. The protection of underground water sources is especially important to Pennsylvania because we have the second highest number of private drinking water wells in the Nation; three million Pennsylvanians are dependent on private wells to provide safe drinking water to their homes. Every day I hear from Pennsylvanians who worry about their future access to safe drinking water and about explosions caused by gases migrating up from the deep. There continue to be incidents in Pennsylvania that could have, and should have, been averted. These cases raise the question of whether the essential steps have been taken to protect families and communities against potential detrimental side effects of drilling.”
Senator Casey has introduced three fracking-related bills to protect Pennsylvanians and promote jobs for Pennsylvanians.
The FRAC Act -- Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act – would amend the Safe Drinking Water Act. The legislation would repeal a Bush administration exemption provided for the oil and gas industry and would require companies to disclose the chemicals they use in their hydraulic fracturing processes. Specifically, the bill would require disclosure of chemical additives added to water used in fracking to State agencies, which will then be made public on a website. It further requires oil and gas companies to disclose proprietary information about those additives to medical professionals if that information is needed for medical treatment. This information would have to be disclosed prior to and after fracking.
As the number of Marcellus Shale well-sites continues to increase, we need to ensure the jobs are going to Pennsylvanians. That is why Senator Casey is reintroducing the Marcellus Shale On-the-Job Training Act to authorize grants to strengthen the On-the-Job Training programs to help ensure natural gas drilling jobs go to Pennsylvanians and not workers from out-of-state.
Senator Casey's Faster Action Safety Team Emergency Response (FASTER) Act provides the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with the ability to draft regulations that will enhance emergency response procedures at oil and gas wells.
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